Paige Dyson Chronicles 5 Union of Sorts
by NavyWriterChic
Summary: Paige Dyson is up for evaluation, the Shadow Riders are under Megabyte's control, and the Knight Surfers are in danger of deletion...all in a cycle's work for the Guardian / Surfer Hybrid Paige Dyson.
1. Chapter 1

_Here is story #5 in the Paige Dyson Chronicles. Please enjoy! (Oh and review too)_

* * *

><p>"<em><strong>Guardian's Log: X-01 dash 10005<strong>_

_Today has been hectic by my standards and I like it busy. This cycle, I have finally returned back to Mainframe after constantly speaking with the Temperance System of sprites to get their concerns out on the table and avoid an all out conflict. Thankfully, they agreed to a three cycle ceasefire until I return next second to take care of them._

_ The Spectrals and sprites are finally talking to each other in a civilized matter and the system of Vector Prime is peaceful and finally is happy to have a Guardian in Pixel Pardais there with me to keep track of her. It's hard being a rookie guardian with a large system like Vector straight out of the Guardian Academy, but I have full confidence in her ability to function._

_ I should know with all the systems that I have now and still trying to live in Mainframe._

_ Mainframe is functioning, but the interior unit of command is having a hard time agreeing with each other, but that is none of my concern. I have my own problems to deal with. Paige Dyson, Guardian X-01, out._"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Breakside Tower Apartments<strong>_

Paige was out of the shower and was drying off her hair with a towel. It was going to be her first day off minus monitoring from her new apartment. It would be good with all the traveling between her three systems that she had been doing.

She needed to rest.

"Dix, open VidWindows to Spectral City, Temperance, and Vector Prime," she ordered before sitting at her table and putting her feet on it. "Open mainly to the Command-Dot-Coms of the systems, if available."

"What do I look like? Your phone system?" Dixon's whirls and sounds said to her.

"Yeah."

Dixon floated and then opened all the windows as requested.

"Command-Dot-Coms of the system, this is your Guardian protector," she called to them all. "Responding if available would be good."

Each static filled window vanished and revealed the Command-Dot-Coms of each system.

"We are here," Spectral Omega said to her.

The Temperance system Commander sneered that he was being pulled away.

The doorbell rung.

"Sit tight gentlemen," she said. "I shall return." Paige got up, zipped up her open top, and walked to the door which opened.

"Is this a bachelor pad or a bachelorette pad sugah?" Mouse said as she and AndrAIa came inside. "You can't tell with how drab it is."

"Well, I haven't been home Mouse," she replied. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Trying to welcome you to Mainframe," AndrAIa said to her. "Oh Mouse is right. You need some help."

"This is the first time I have been home in a second gals," she told them. "I haven't had a time to decorate or accessorize my pad. But don't worry. It's on my priority one list in say, oh, ten cycles or so. If I even make it that far with my new powers."

"Well we're here to help you out honey with a house-coming online party," Mouse told her. "Are you busy sugah?"

"Let me finish my business with my systems and then maybe we can do something," Paige answered. She went back to the open VidWindows. "OK gentlemen and lady, let's cut and paste to the new business."

* * *

><p>AndrAIa and Mouse were watching Paige work from the front door to the apartment. She was working profusely while trying to get herself cleaned and respectful in appearance.<p>

"She's something now, isn't she?" Mouse commented.

"But overworking herself isn't going to fix one thing," AndrAIa stated.

"What?"

"That she's trying to avoid Bob. She doesn't want to admit that she's still jones'n for him."

They both watched her continue to work and waited for her to finish so they could have some fun with her.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Principle Office<strong>_

Dot Matrix sat in the War Room working on the already large back-order log of work that she needed to get done. She constantly stared over at the clock, which read 1057AM. She exhaled and continued working.

Phong entered through the door and rolled his way over toward her. "Ah Dot my child, how is your work coming?"

"I'm working to get all these intelligence reports done before noon," she told him. "It's just with Megabyte's return, the intelligence reports, everyday monitoring system reports, and other messages, I feel bogged down."

"I thought that Enzo was helping you out?" he asked.

"He was, until he chased Matrix out of here and wanted to go and hang out with him. I guess AndrAIa and Mouse went to go check on Paige as she was moving into her new place last second. You'd think that with her travel schedule, she would want to move closer to her systems that she has been assigned to defend…" She took a breath. "I just can't explain her sometimes."

"An enigma Guardian Dyson is," he replied, "but a savior to us. I believe I have an answer to her still living in Mainframe. She needs to find a way to contain Megabyte and once she does, I am certain that she will move along."

"Can't be soon enough, can it?" she mumbled.

Wellman Matrix came walking into the War Room. "I have more reports for you princess," he said. "More intelligence on Megabyte."

Dot grumbled. "I'm never going to get these done before noon."

They wanted to know why.

"Bob wanted to meet at the Diner at noon so we could talk. I'm sure it has to be about the wedding, or the supposed wedding that was supposed to happen and never did. I just don't think that we are ready to discuss this. It's too soon."

"Did you talk to Bob about it?" Phong asked.

Dot stayed silent.

A VidWindow opened up before she could reply. In the window was a very handsome man of black and silver hair in the uniform of a high-ranking Guardian official.

"Yes, I am searching for the Command-dot-com of the system," his deep voice requested.

"That would be me," Dot replied standing. "Dot Matrix."

"Commander Matrix, I am Jeldwyn Green. Guardian Evaluation Specialist. I have been requested to come to Mainframe and assess the situation of Megabyte's new emergence and evaluate the status and need of Guardian X-01 Paige Dyson in your system. I am requested to come from the words of Prime Guardian Turbo Mallek and Surfer-Guardian Commander Maximillion Dyson. May I have the address to Mainframe so I may use a portal?"

Dot was surprised at the efficiency of this guardian evaluator. "Permission granted Guardian Green," she replied. "I would be honored to have you as our guest in our system."

"Thank you Commander," Green replied. "I will arrive in thirty nanos." The window closed.

"What about your lunch date Dot?" her father pointed out.

"Like I said," she told them, "I don't think we are ready to discuss this. I will just tell Bob that we can't meet because I have a guest coming. He'll understand."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Dot's Diner<strong>_

"I don't understand," Bob said.

"Don't understand what mate?" Ray Tracer said to him as they were gliding toward Baudway heading for the diner where they would stop for an energy shake.

"Why they think that Paige can't stay in Mainframe?" he repeated. "She has a purpose for being here. She's trying to help us get rid of Megabyte and it's easy for her to be in a place where she is a portal away from her systems in case anything goes wrong.

"The Guardians think it is a waste of her skills being here and are sending some evaluator to see if she is really needed here."

"I hate those blokes," Ray told him. "One of the earlier girlfriends was a guardian. She had an evaluator that would have followed her around until shutdown and it still wouldn't be good enough for her. Brecka and I, we never had a moment alone and that's why she rebelled…a lot."

"What happened?"

"She was decommissioned and became a tag-along on my board," Ray told his story as they landed. They were walking into the diner as he finished the story. "We decided we were going to get married and she found this other bloke in the system and ran off with him. Oh Brecka, now she was a girl."

"How does she compare to say Mouse?"

"Oh, she's just like her, but Mouse is crazier than she was. I miss Brecka, I really do, but I'm glad that she ran off with that other bloke and I found Mouse. Now there's a girl who I could see upgrading with."

Bob and Ray sat down.

Cecil came around to be by them. "Not that I am your messenger or anything Mousier Bob, but Ms. Matrix called to cancel your lunch date for this after cycle."

"She canceled?" Bob asked. "Did she give a reason?"

"What am I? Your dog now? She did not give me a reason to tell you. Just to say that she…wasn't…coming." The robot went away to serve another binome.

Bob was disappointed.

"You and Dot still not having a full-length chat yet?" Ray asked.

"I'm beginning to wonder if she is avoiding me or something," he replied. "It sure seems that way. Probably has something to do with that…."

The door to the diner opened and in strolled AndrAIa, Mouse, and Paige; laughing at something before they entered. Paige was carrying several tiny Vid-display bags in her hand as they did.

Their eyes met and stayed for several nano-seconds before the other girls led Paige away to a different table.

Ray noticed the stare down and snapped his fingers to break it. "See something you like there Bob?" he asked.

"Maybe," Bob replied and looked to Paige who was socializing with the other girls again. "Maybe."

* * *

><p><em>Oh the tension...it could be cut through like a knife. Please proceed onward.<em>


	2. Chapter 2

_****Onward..._

* * *

><p><em><strong>Paige<strong>'s** loft**_

Paige Dyson floated on back to her loft with her items from shopping with AndrAIa and Mouse tied to her board. Her tower was in sight and she went slowly to feel the breeze in her hair. It was relaxing.

Dixon whirled and warbled on her wrist.

"There's nothing wrong Dix," she spoke to her keytool. "Just tired. I need some energy before I log off and I'll be fine."

Dixon replied back.

"I'm not lying."

Again.

"OK, so seeing Bob and him staring at me made me a little weak in the knees, but that's it. It was one time."

Dixon said something else.

"You're a pain in the asterisk just so you know. He's engaged to Dot Matrix. I'm not a home-wrecker like that Jeldwyn Green was when he married mom after dad left."

She arrived to the tower and opened the door with the button controller on her wrist. The doors opened up and she glided inside and stepped off her surfboard.

She was not alone however.

"Dot," she asked.

"Hello Paige," Dot replied.

"What are you doing here? In my apartment nonetheless?" She wasn't upset. Just violated was all.

"I asked her to let me in," the voice replied as he came from her kitchen area.

"What in the Net are you doing here?" Paige asked with anger and aimed Dixon in his direction.

"Easy Paige," Dot told her. "This is Jel…"

"I know who he is. It still begs an answer why you are in my apartment snooping around my property, or what I have here. Wasn't breaking up my parents' marriage good enough for you?"

"Paige," Dot berated her.

"It's alright Commander Matrix," Green replied. "She has a right to be upset. I did take her mother away from her father and married her. Dixon supported the marriage up until she died, but Paige was always against me."

Dixon made noises on her wrist.

"Dixon, still feisty even though you're technically off-line too," Jeldwyn replied.

Dixon replied and Paige snorted to block her laughter.

Jeldwyn knew what Dixon had said and continued with his work. "I am your official Guardian evaluator to see if your services are truly needed in Mainframe or if you could move into one of your systems that you are supposed to manage."

"Can't show favoritism and Megabyte and I have some unfinished business so I figured this would be the best place to live. Besides, how did you get my name? Did you happen to pay someone off to get my read-me file or were you just lucky?"

"We'll see how well you are needed in Mainframe…" Jeldwyn was saying before a web-portal opened and someone flew into the apartment and crashed on the floor.

"Stara!" Paige knew her and turned as another being emerged from the portal as well.

It was Damien Triad.

"No way!" Paige said. "You were deleted. I know you were."

"Not exactly Guardian Dyson," Megabyte's viral voice took over Triad's body.

Paige attacked the virus with fervor and realized that he was nothing more than an alias when her clinched fist passed through his body.

She grabbed the alias by the neck and threw him up against the wall. "Where are the others?" she demanded to know. "Where are the other Surfers?"

The alias Megabyte laughed and vanished before she got an answer out of him.

"What in the Net was that?" Green asked. "Better yet, how does someone on the Web have the address to Mainframe?"

"I gave it to her," Paige said as she knelt down to her friend's aid. "Stara. Stara can you hear me?" she asked.

The two of them weren't helping.

Stara groaned and rolled back onto her back. That was when she saw the claw marks in her abdomen that seeped some of her precious life energy from the slashes.

Dot Matrix turned away from the carnage and was about to call for a med team over a VidWindow. "I need a med team to Paige Dyson's apartment…"

"Dixon, mend," she called of her keytool. "Low power."

Dixon's healing beams were normally used to heal tears that had ruptured in the system, but this time she was going to try and heal a person with it. Without medical attention right away, Stara wasn't going to make it.

The beams did some minor healing and sealed her skin over the wounds, but she was still going to need more healing.

Stara thankfully opened her eyes and shot up; clutching her abdomen at the shock. "Boss," she said. "Boss you have to help them. They're already tailing Blade and Lana in the Sapron System…and Grendar is…"

"Calm down Star, we'll get to them. I promise you, but right now we need to get you healed and then we'll devise a battle strategy."

"But you're evaluation…," Jeldwyn Green blurted out as Paige was helping Stara back to her feet.

"Go ahead with Commander Matrix and pick through my personal affects, my clothes, my bathroom, even my lingerie drawer if you want to, but don't tell me what to do and when to do it. I'm not that kind of girl."

Paige helped Stara onto her board and left.

* * *

><p>"You didn't tell me that you were Paige's stepfather?" Dot Matrix asked him.<p>

"She never referred to me as a father," Jeldwyn replied. "Tierra said that I was the reason that Paige and Dixon became so different even though they were identical twin files. It was the reason why she could never keep control of Paige after Dixon went to the Guardian Academy and Maximillion couldn't raise Paige aft…"

"After what?" she asked.

"Not here," he told her, "but I would be pleased to go into this subject, say over dinner."

Dot was reluctant, but smiled and accepted his invitation.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Principle Office <strong>_

Stara Crichton was scanned again as her wounds were completely healed by the Principle Office machines. She was going to live to fly another day. She sat up on the table and observed her abdomen. "You work miracle functions Phong," Stara complimented. "Thank you."

Phong chuckled to the young web surfer's flirtatious comment.

"All right Stara," Bob was trying to get all the details out of her. "Tell us all what happened in the Web."

"I told you, we were being chased by those wannabe Shadow Riders," she told them. "We knew they had been deleted, and we didn't know why we were being chased. Grendar heard a virus was attacking his home world of Dathonemia and we went to scan the system and that's where they ambushed in the jungle. We had nowhere to go. We got separated and the Triad clone tailed me. I think Blade and Lana went back to his home system of Sapron to hide out."

"Sapron?" Matrix asked. "We never heard of it."

"It's a place where you can get lost for cycles if you're not from there," Paige answered pushing herself off the wall she was leaning on. "But what I don't get is why Megabyte has created so many aliases to come after the Knight Surfers when I am the one who smacked him down so badly. Why wouldn't he come after me direct…?"

Bob figured it out too. "He is coming after you directly," he said. "He's going after your friends."

"Then it's my job to delete his clones before he gets Blade, Lana, and Grendar," she surmised. "I'm going to Sapron to find Blade and Lana and bring them back to the fortress. But I need to track down something first. Matrix, AndrAIa, can you go to the Knight Fortress with Stara and make sure that it is fully operational."

"I'm going with you boss," Stara protested.

"You can't Star," Paige told her. "What I need to get is going to take a lot of talking and trust and she'll only trust me so let me take care of this. You get the fortress up and then go back to Dathonemia and get Grendar from his tribe. No doubt that is where he would have gone if he was being chased."

"OK. Call me when you have Blade and Lana."

"Roger that," Paige told her as Stara, Matrix, and AndrAIa left the room. "Ray and Bob, you and I are going to Sapron to find Blade and Lana. We're going to need catty behavior and quick escapes to get through the tunnels throughout the system."

"I can back you up Sugah," Mouse suggested.

"No Mouse," she replied and passed her a Rom. "I need you to do something for me. I need you to follow Jeldwyn Green and make sure that he's not up to any no-good. Since he did what he did before, I don't trust him. Make sure he performs his basic evaluation and gets gone. I don't want him around forever."

"Got it honey," Mouse replied. "You hurry back now."

Paige nodded.

* * *

><p>The three web-surfers and guardian group flew parallel with the renegade and game sprite toward the tear that had been converted into a portal to the Net.<p>

All entered the portal as Dot Matrix watched from the War Room. She lost track of them once the portal closed behind her friends and loved ones, but knew they would be OK.

"Be safe," she said. "Be safe."

Wellman Matrix, Little Enzo, and Friskit watched with her.

Paige, Ray Tracer, and Stara Crichton in their automatic web suits and Bob, AndrAIa, and Matrix in their makeshift ones floated into the web and observed the chaos within. It was alive with a flurry of activity, but they knew that they had to endure the disarray to complete their missions.

Paige saluted the other trio of Matrix with AndrAIa and Stara as they left on their mission to find Grendar and then off to the fortress to get it online so if in case the Surfers needed healing, it would be ready.

Ray and Bob started toward the direction of the Sapron System, but Paige called out to them.

"Not yet boys," she said.

"We need to get going or we're never to going to find Lana and Blade," Bob told her.

"But we're not prepared to sever the link between Megabyte and the clones yet," she replied.

"What are you suggesting love?" Ray asked.

"Follow me," she added as she whirled her old blue cape over her shoulders and she took off.

Both of the men were in hot pursuit of her.

* * *

><p>Back in MainFrame, Dot Matrix had finished up with her reports quicker than she thought that she would. She didn't have anyone bothering her because Enzo was out with Friskit doing systems knows what, but at least she was alone and able to work on her work.<p>

She also had a potential date with Jeldwyn Green who had asked her out earlier and it was exciting, but yet she still had to remember that she needed to reschedule her meeting with Bob regarding their canceled wedding. She put the meeting date as TBA and checked out of her terminal.

When she was exiting her office, Mouse noticed her leaving.

"Where are you off to Sugah?" the hacker asked.

"Surprisingly," she replied, "I'm going out to dinner."

"With who?"

"Surprisingly, the Guardian Evaluator Jeldwyn Green asked me out to dinner."

Mouse hummed lightly. "Well you have a good time darlin'. Don't give up too much OK."

"Too much what?" she asked for clarification.

"Information on Paige. You know that he is going to be grilling you for information on her and why she is still here in Mainframe."

"I won't tell him anything that he doesn't already know about her," Dot told her. "He's not going to use me as an informant download."

* * *

><p>Dot walked into the restaurant on Level One, a small French themed establishment was empty of sprites, but there was a path that guided her to the middle table. There stood Jeldwyn Green in his dress uniform in a stature of diplomatic nature.<p>

She was dressed in her blackish red gown with her icon sparkling on her choker that she wore. She wanted to dress up for this place knowing that it had a reputation for being a restaurant of fine dining.

Dot approached the Guardian Evaluator who pulled out the chair for her.

"My lady," Green said to her and she took a seat.

He sat across from her in his chair.

Jeldwyn Green sat down in the chair across from the Command dot Com of the system of Mainframe. Granted she was lovely for being a Command dot Com, but his main purpose for being here was to learn of his disrespecting step-daughter and why she was really staying in Mainframe.

What purpose did Paige really have to be in Mainframe and to stay here? He knew that Paige and Bob had a short lived relationship when they were kids, but what was happening now?

* * *

><p><em>Oooooo, it is just getting better from here. Keep reading!<em>


	3. Chapter 3

_****Chapter Three is up and running..._

* * *

><p><em><strong>The Web – Storm of Ages<strong>_

Ray Tracer, Paige Dyson, and Bob Serrano sailed into the massive web storm that awaited them, but they knew that they were getting closer to the Sapron Operating System. It was a dangerous shortcut, but they needed to get there and help out Blade and Lana that were trapped in the system.

Paige led the way, but Bob was close behind her. It was almost as if he was trying to keep up with her.

"Paige," Bob said her name.

"Yeah," she replied.

He wanted to say something else, but Ray surfed up onto her other side and spoke to her. "We should be only a few more meters away from Sapron," the surfer said to her. "Once we get there, what is your plan girl?"

"Well, Sapron is a system of mazes and tunnels," she told him. "I don't think that Blade would go back to his old haunts, but he may be in that general area around it. They're going to need food and energy and there is a hidden store unit deep underground. If they are smart that is where they…"

Paige was suddenly struck by a lightning bolt onto her board. She was knocked off of it and started falling through the storm.

"Paige!" Bob shouted and dove downward to grab her before she ended up in the storm's eye.

He and Ray both headed downward to catch her.

Paige tried using her keytool, but she couldn't get it to work the way she wanted it to; to summon her surfboard and catch her.

She saw Bob gliding down at a sharp angle to try and catch her, but the eye of the storm was growing closer as she fell. He wasn't going to make it to her in time before she was deleted by the storm.

"Reach for me!" he shouted.

She reached out for his hands, but was too far away.

"Dixon, connect to Glitch," she called.

"Glitch, connect to Dixon," he called.

The keytools linked together with a laser sort of rope and locked together. Bob pulled the zipboard up sharply and pulled them away before they nearly reached the eye of the storm. Paige dangled behind him as though a banner dragged behind a plane. She held onto her other wrist with her keytool as they escaped back to the safeness of the higher skies.

Ray was there holding Paige's surfboard and met them once it was safer.

Paige jumped back onto the board and tried to yank her wrist free. "Thanks guys," she told them. "I was nearly devoured by a storm cloud and deleted." She tried to go away, but Glitch and Dixon wouldn't let go.

She and Bob couldn't be separated.

"Dixon, you can let go now," she ordered.

"Glitch," Bob told of his keytool.

Code was being exchanged between the two keytools and they wouldn't retract.

"Dix, release!"

The keytools did finally release the two guardians from each other.

"That was weird," Bob said and looked at Glitch.

"Too weird," Paige replied.

"Hey guys," Ray called out to them from outside the storm cloud. "I found the tear to the Sapron Control System. Let's get going."

"You guys go ahead and take care of business," she told him. "I have to go to a different system and take care of some business."

"Where are you going?" Bob asked her.

"Just follow Ray into Sapron and head into the lowest tiers and you should find the Paradox Tunnels. That was where Blade use to hang out and we use to outrun the Guardian hunt Squads by hiding in those tunnels. Since Megabyte is using the clones to sustain his lifeforce, I need to get something that is going to delete him for good. Trust me, I'll be back."

Paige went flying away to do whatever in the Net she was going to do.

* * *

><p>"Someone should go with her," Bob said and was about to leave with her.<p>

"Come on mate," Ray stopped him. "Do you want her to trash and throw you in the recycling bin? Believe me, you make her mad and she will. Let's just locate Blade and Lana and hopefully get out of the system before things get bad."

The web surfer transformed the tear into the portal that would grant them access to the Sapron System. Once it was strong, they glided in to search for the Knight Surfers who were missing.

* * *

><p>Away hidden in the clouds, the clone of Damien Triad  Megabyte stood there watching as the web surfer Ray Tracer and Guardian Bob had led him right to the location of one of the Knight Surfers. He had been wondering where the couple had gone to and figured that the one known as Blade and his girlfriend Lana Vesper would have flown their way to Blade's system.

He had no access, but with the web surfer's help, he entered the system and laughed.

The web surfer and guardian flew in low into the city center, but he looked for a scanning implement or security official that would have the means to find the wayward surfers.

The virus located such a unit and headed to take control of it and the rest of the security forces.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Mainframe<strong>_

Dot Matrix and Jeldwyn Green were laughing at the intellectual conversation that they were having. They had obviously had too much to drink and their food was already eaten as they enjoyed their comradery.

"And that is how you ended up with a big brother who was previously your baby brother and his system rebooted and now you have a little brother again," Jeldwyn laughed as he took a drink of his wine.

"It was awkward in the beginning, but I have Matrix to fight the games now," she told him as the waiter came by and refreshed her glass, "and I know that I can look after Enzo a little closer now. If I could only do the same to Bob, it would be a perfect cycle."

"I hear that your wedding was crashed because Megabyte had returned from the web as a Trojan horse virus," he told her. "It was the talk Supercomputer as there hadn't been a Trojan horse virus in cycles and now he was here. It was incredible to hear about and process."

"I guess that is why Paige Dyson is still sticking around?" Dot said before taking a drink of her wine again.

"Oh. Do you not share the same feelings about Guardian Dyson than the rest of your friends?" he asked.

"Paige is an interesting program to say the least, but quite personally…if I can be frank for a few minutes."

"By all means."

"I think that Paige is a bad influence on a lot of sprites, including my little brother Enzo," she told him. She leaned her arms on the table and looked directly at him. "She's reckless in her methods and has no care for authority. Just that she gets her sprite / virus / whatever and then call it a day. She doesn't have any teamwork skills and chooses to work independently."

"This does not surprise me," he told her. "Since Megabyte, as Kilobyte, was responsible for the death of her twin sister Dixon Green, I wouldn't be surprised if Paige stayed in Mainframe until this virus is dealt with."

"But no one can defeat a Trojan horse," she told him. "What makes her think that she can? And then there is her whole past relationship with Bob. I just don't want her here causing any trouble. Let me ask you a question."

"Absolutely Commander Matrix," he addressed her.

"What would be the grounds for her being pulled from Mainframe?"

"I, as her evaluator, must find that she is interfering with cycle-to-cycle operations of Mainframe or preventing data from being transferred. She could also be pulled based on her work performance of not keeping up on her systems. She could even be file transferred to that system to be downloaded until the system is back to normal operations again."

"Really," Dot said. "That is interesting. Is she fitting any of the criterion so far?"

"I don't know," he told her as he took her hands across the table. "We will see when my evaluation is complete."

They smiled to each other for several nanoseconds and didn't leave each other's stare.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Web Wastelands<strong>_

Paige Dyson continued deep into the Web on her mission to search for the item that she was looking for.

The Web Wastelands was where undeleted RAM and the Net's cookies were often dumped all throughout Cyberspace and it piled and piled until eventually the Net needed a massive reboot to clean up the waste.

It was where she would hopefully find the weapon that she needed to defeat Megabyte once and for all. It was her sole mission in life for now.

She started searching through the debris and knew that it would take forever unless she sped up the process.

"Dixon, start scanning for her," she ordered her sister to do.

Dixon did just that and started looking for what she was looking for: the method to get rid of Megabyte once and for all.

Debris shifted around behind her and made a noise that rattled her cage a little.

Paige headed in the direction of the sound and started scanning there.

Another sound came at her again with a psychotic laughter that was only identifiable with one creature.

"Come on out and play," Paige called to the piles of junk. "I know that you are here."

"_Now what sort of sprite would take a risk of coming all the way out here to the Wastelands to visit with me_?" the woman's voice said to her. "_I am a busy body you know_."

"Not from what I hear," Paige replied. "You don't have a body anymore, but let me give you the opportunity to save someone that you care about."

"_I haven't the faintest idea who or what you are talking about_," the voice said as a reddened streak zipped across the tops of the piles.

"He's in danger and he needs you to help me," she pleaded with the being. "I know that you are virus, but I need your help. Help me and I'll help you."

"_Now what can you do for me my dear_?" the streak said as it whisked right passed her body and wove in between several of the mountains of raw data.

"I can get out of the wastelands and into a paradise where your past achievements could be honored in the proper respect," she told the virus.

The virus didn't seem interested and instead laughed at her.

"Look Hex, Bob needs your help as much as my friend Blade needs mine," she pleaded. "Help him and you help me and we all win."

The streak came back and shoved her down with a powerful blast. She hit the ground and looked up at the flaming red and white ball that floated where she had been previously standing.

"_For Bob, I will do anything_," Hexadecimal said to her. "_What do you need me to do_?"

Paige smiled and knew that she had the virus's trust at last.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Mainframe<strong>_

Dot Matrix returned to her condo with the Guardian Evaluator Jeldwyn Green escorting her home. She didn't want the night to end, but she couldn't allow Green passed her door and into her home. Enzo was sleeping in his room and to have a stranger in the house at the start of the morning cycle could be problematic.

Too many questions to answer and she was already questioning other decisions that she had made over the past cycle.

"I had a wonderful evening," she said to him.

"As did I," Jeldwyn Green responded. "I would care to do this again say, next second."

"I would be honored," she accepted the invitation.

Jeldwyn came in closer and gave her a light kiss on her lips. She had tried to turn away, but decided to accept the guardian's expression of care.

"Good evening Commander Matrix," he told her and walked away looking at her until the lift closed, separating them.

Dot headed inside her condo and found little Enzo lying on the couch with a comic window in hand and a half eaten meal on the floor. Friskit was lying there beside him.

She snuck passed him and headed into her room to change her attire for bed. She was still flying above cloud nine function with her wonderful night with the Guardian that she had forgotten about everything.

She even forgot about Bob, Ray, and Paige in the web as they were looking for Paige's team that was being pursued by Megabyte's various aliases.

Dot opened up a VidWindow and saw Mouse was watching some video and then shut her window when she appeared in hers. "What were you doing Mouse?" she asked.

"Nothin Sugah," Mouse replied. "Nothing for you to be worried about."

"OK. Anything from the Teams yet?"

* * *

><p>Mouse sat calm and mellow from while she spoke to Dot. She didn't need to know that she had been watching Jeldwyn Green and her wine and dine each other for the evening; even though Green had been asking a lot of questions about Paige at dinner<p>

"I just spoke to my girl Stara. She's found Grendar and they're heading to the Knight Fortress to get it online and ready when the rest of the group returns from the Sapron System. Nothing from Ray and company though or from Paige."

"I thought she was with them?" Dot asked.

"She had a small errand to run before she linked up with everybody. Don't worry Dot. I'm keeping my eyes peeled on the scanners."

"OK. Call me when you know anything?"

"Absolutely."

The window shut and Mouse wiped her smile right off her face. She went back to watching the video of the dinnertime that Dot had shared with Jeldwyn Green.

They were eating dinner and drinking what she could only guess was an alcoholic brand. She laughed and Green listened to Dot say something.

"It's not that I don't trust Paige, but her methods are so uncanny," Dot said at a near whisper, but she turned up the volume so that she could really listen. "Enzo my little brother loves her and Matrix thinks her lethality will finally rid Mainframe of Megabyte once and for all. I just don't like her."

"Well Paige can be that way sometimes," Green said to her. "She was never the more disciplined child program. She always had to buck at the system and resist any authority and control. It's shocking that she and Dixon were twins the way they are so different."

"I just don't see why she needs to stay in Mainframe," she said. "She would be better served in one of her systems or even in the Supercomputer."

"I couldn't agree with you more," Green said to her.

Mouse zoomed in on Jeldwyn's leg and saw something that he turned off as their food arrived. It was a small recording device.

"So that's your plan," Mouse surmised. "You're going to turn Mainframe against Paige and force her to leave. Well, we'll just have to see about that one won't we." The hacker started typing in codes to try and access the information that she would need to succeed in her mission.

_Uh oh, will Paige be relieved of her duties? You will have to read on and find out!_


	4. Chapter 4

_****OK, this is a long chapter, but everything had to go together. Enjoy siphoning through everything._

* * *

><p><em><strong>Sapron Operating System<strong>_

Bob Serrano and Ray Tracer hovered along the skies of the Sapron System noticing the busy underworld of mazes and tunnels that existed below them. The entire system was a complete labyrinth of troubled and economical areas…depending on which way you went.

"We'll never find our way through this mess and find Blade and Lana," Ray said.

"That's if they are even still in the area," Bob asserted and programmed Glitch. "Glitch, radar scan. Track and lock on Blade Drake and Lana Vesper."

Glitch started scanning and searching and got a lock on them.

"They're near the center," Bob told him.

"That's the Underworld of underworlds," Ray told him. "If you make it that deep, you can practically be in any gang or group you pick."

"Or you can get deleted along the way down there," Paige's voice added in as she returned from the web and joined the duo to form the trio again.

"Hey sheila," Ray said. "That was quick."

"Got what we needed and believe me it wasn't easy to convince," Paige told them. "You have a lock on Blade and Lana so lets get moving."

"Wait a second," Bob protested before they left. "What did you go get?"

"Something that will help us get rid of Megabyte once and for all," she said, tapping her keytool Dixon before them. "We don't have much time. Blade really isn't liked by many of the gangs here so we have to get to him and Lana fast."

They descended into the dark maze to search for their friends.

* * *

><p>The maze tunnels were many as the binomes and sprites survived their cycle-to-cycle lives below the surface of the system they called home. Small fires lined areas that had been taken control of by families and tribes who were cooking or just trying to stay alive in the system.<p>

Gangs that were there tried to incite trouble and steal from what little the small families had.

As she hid deep in one of the recesses deep below ground, Lana Vesper watched as a rival gang, the Black Hearts rob a small family of their food and left them there.

She stood there as she clutched at the bag of chips and bottle of liquid that she and Blade were forced to scavenge for every night just to keep their energy at a minimum level to function.

Blade was out searching for a transport so that they could get out of the system without being detected. They were on the run from the clones after all. They were trying to get to one of Paige's systems and then they could get a hold of her and she would know what to do.

After the family had settled down, Lana emerged from her hiding spot and checked on them. They cowered in fear for sprites were the only ones that were associated with being in gangs.

Lana gave them one of the bags of chips so they could at least have something to eat.

They waited till she was walking away, but she eventually heard the bag crinkling as it was opened and the family began to eat them all up.

She found the ladder where she had descended to the street, climbed up in a hurry, and slinked through the tunnel to get to the hidden recess where Blade was trying to keep their own fire alive.

"Sorry I took so long love," she told her boyfriend. "Ran into a little local trouble."

"Did they recognize you?" he asked.

"No," she replied, "but food below the surface is getting scarce so eventually, we are going to have to go above ground and get food."

"We have to try and stay below ground. At least until Megabyte is dealt with or we can get a ride to Temperance or Mainframe."

"Did you find one?" she asked.

"I may have, but it's with one of my old hood boys," he told her. "The negative side of it is we are going to have to _pay_ for it."

"How much?"

"You don't want to know."

"You're right, I don't," she said as she tore open the bag and ate a chip.

"We're going to have to get out of here sooner or later," Blade told her as they snuggled close by the fire. "We're going to go crazy if we don't."

"What? Go crazy from stale chips and bad water?"

"No," he told her. "From not seeing the sun."

Lana Vesper snuggled her head into the recess below his chin and he smoothed her blue hair until she fell asleep.

Blade decided to stay awake so that he could keep the both of them safe.

* * *

><p>Ray Tracer searched toward the left in a triad of tunnels.<p>

Paige Dyson hovered above where she came in contact with some of the lesser gang members who were suffering due to one of the gangs that had oppressed them. She continued forward when another group looked up at her and knew that she was a threat.

Bob Serrano continued to follow not too far behind the others.

He and Paige ended up in the same tunnel, which Ray went to the right in order to keep looking for Blade and Lana.

Bob and Paige continued to slink into the tunnel system and found their way into an opening. It was tagged with the logos upon logos of the different gangs. This was probably where the gangs would "hook up" to do battle.

They hovered over dried blood, fluids, and water from a recent rainstorm.

Paige came to an abrupt stop and was scanning for noises.

"What is it?" Bob asked her.

"Move, now," she said and they went racing into the tunnels.

The pair dove into a high tunnel and got quiet.

* * *

><p>From one of the tunnels on all four ends, members of Megabyte's taken over Shadow Riders along with Saprons own Raiderz, Black Hearts, and the Zeroes gangs meeting.<p>

The Black Hearts were a group of female sprites who had taken a vow of breaking boys hearts and using them to get what they needed.

The Raiderz were a low class gang of hoods who were often used to destroy other gangs and sold their services to the highest bidder.

The Zeroes were the only zero-grade binome gang who were often seen as a joke, but their small stature made them very deadly to deal with.

The viral Damien Triad and the other Shadow Riders stood there in the middle of the triangle of gangs in order to keep the peace…for now.

"Alright Triad," the leader of the Raiderz with blue lens eyeglasses challenged the viral leader, "you told us that we would find Drake down in these tunnels and I have yet to see any sign that he and his girl."

"Patience," Damien's infected form of Megabyte said. "I know that they are in these tunnels. It is the perfect place for them to go and hide. It could take cycles for us to find them. The first one to find the romantic couple and bring them to me will receive a two-thousand unit bonus. But I want them alive, understood?"

The groups' leaders all looked to the bag of currency in his hand. They all mumbled that they could use that type of money.

"We'll take our levels," the catlike Broken Heart leader said. "You binomes stay out!"

"You try and cross that line of sight," the Zeroes binomic leader said. "It was your black haired girl who crossed us into our path."

They hissed at each other.

"Oh stop it," Damien shouted. "Take your haunts and search every nook and cranny file space you have in your territories. You have one second to search."

The group all broke up and went to their areas and haunts.

Damien Triad and the rest of the virally controlled Shadow Riders laughed together in Megabyte's voice. "See to it that you search where they search," Damien's body said. "I want to find them first. Delete any of those gangs if they find them before you. Now, go."

The other four Shadows went following after the gangs and Damien stood there laughing.

"Now, to wait for Ms. Dyson as I am sure that she is on her way here now," he grumbled to himself. "She is so persistent; I know she will be here."

He used his zipboard to guide upward.

* * *

><p>Paige and Bob remained hidden so that Megabyte did not know that they were already there. Her body completely surrounded Bob's and pushed him down so that neither of them was seen.<p>

Once they were alone, they pair crept out of the tunnel and jumped onto their respected floating boards.

"So this is just great," Bob said. "We not only have to out process Megabyte in Damien Triad and the Shadow Riders' skins, but we also have to out process the three most powerful gangs in the system."

"Well, we cannot let Blade and Lana fry," Paige replied. "We just have to be faster than them…and we are not going to accomplish that task until we get moving."

The pair headed off into the tunnel system to search.

* * *

><p><strong>MainFrame<strong>

Mouse was walking nonchalantly down Baudway as she headed for Dot's Diner. She knew that Dot was trying to catch up on work in the one place where she could relax.

When she entered the diner, Dot was sitting among several open VidWindows and her datapad.

She took a sliding seat into the bench behind a VidWindow and peeked through the screens.

Dot closed the window and was still working away when she said, "You know if you want to ask me something," she said, "just ask me."

"What makes you think I want to ask you something sugah?" she replied.

Dot just looked at her.

"I was just going to inquire about your little date last night," she spit it out. "How was it getting back in the saddle?"

Dot took off her glasses. "It was nice," the Command-dot-com replied.

Mouse smiled at her.

"OK, so it was really nice," Dot finally said with a smile. "It was nice to be treated out and talk about business with someone who shares the same function."

"So that is what you are into now; Guardian Evaluators?" Mouse asked as she reclined in her booth seat. She gathered a leg up and wrapped her arms around it. "I am sure that you had some interesting conversation."

"Not really," Dot replied. "He asked about what it is I do and now efficient I am with my businesses."

"Did you do what I asked you not to do?"

"What? About Paige?" She was a little distant when she was about to answer the question. "He asked a few questions…"

"About…"

"If she is truly needed in MainFrame, what sort of functions does she use to benefit her living in MainFrame, those sorts of questions," Dot said. "I did not say anything that could potentially harm her reputation."

Mouse was about to say something else, when Jeldwyn Green actually walked into the diner and started walking towards Dot. She noticed that Dot's face lit up when he came closer.

"Good morning Commander Matrix," Green welcomed her with a kiss on her hand.

"Good morning Guardian Green," she replied. "I trust that you know Mouse."

"I know of Mouse, but I cannot say that I have had the pleasure of meeting you," he said as he leaned on the back of her booth. "Are we ready for our business today?"

"Where are we off to today, if I may ask?" Mouse asked.

"I am taking Guardian Green on a tour of Mainframe," Dot replied. "We are going to create a diagnostic plan in the event that Paige is unable to stay in Mainframe and we have to deal with Megabyte ourselves. There is nothing wrong with having a plan in place."

"Not at all," Mouse said as she watched the pair walk out of the diner. "Just as long as you are not contorting and modifying the results for your own gain," she mumbled under her breath. "I better get hold of sugah so she knows what is going on."

* * *

><p><em><span>Sapron System<span>_

The hunt was still on for Blade and Lana, but with four gangs searching for them, they must have been well hidden.

The couple stayed hidden as a couple of Blade's former gang siblings were searching in the tunnels near where they had been sleeping. Thankfully, Blade recognized Felix's voice and woke up Lana so they could hide.

Once the Raiderz were away from them, they emerged from the tunnel.

"We have to try and make a break for it," Lana suggested. "We can't wait around in the tunnels with every major gang looking for us. Once to the surface, maybe we can get hold of the boss or a transport. We can find a place to hide once we have a way out of here."

Blade was in agreement. They had to take a risk to find a way out of here or they would wind up starving to deletion. They needed to take a chance.

"OK babe," he said. "Stay close to me and lets go."

Hand in hand, they jetted into a high tunnel and headed for the surface.

* * *

><p>Ray Tracer was searching for Lana and Blade, but noticed that the Zeroes were coming toward him. He turned on his websuit and sank into the murky water. He winded up blending right in.<p>

They floated above him for several nanoseconds, but then left.

He took in a deep breath, transformed back into his usual self, and then headed off on his search.

* * *

><p>Paige Dyson and Bob were searching for her friends, when they were suddenly about to be accosted by Sapron's lackluster police enforcement.<p>

They were starting to give chase of them.

"Go right," she said and dragged Bob into a tunnel.

When the police programs were searching with lights, Paige covered them in her old blue Knight Surfer cloak and their lips met so she could hide his face from being seen.

Their kiss was a spark-filled explosion between them. It was the first time since they crossed that forbidden line the first time. The first time had been fabulous between them and they could not forget what it had meant to each other.

Once the police binome's light had passed them, Paige pulled away from him and looked to where they were nearly discovered.

"Uh, Paige," Bob said.

"Shh," she said, putting a hand over his mouth. "Do you want us to be found?"

"No, but," he tried to say before another revelation on the other side of the tunnel, not police sentries, but one of the gangs, spotted them.

"I found them," the zero shouted.

"Go," Bob said in a calm panic.

The two of them raced out the pipe and deep into the tunnel system.

They tried to stay side-by-side, but it was not working. One of them would pull away, but as they out maneuvered the gangs or met up with other members, they ended up back together.

When Bob got ahead, he reached for Paige's hand and yanked her up into a street access tunnel. They zipped toward the surface and appeared.

Once they were out, they dashed down into a sewer runoff line.

Before they reached the end however, Paige locked onto her friends Blade and Lana who were coming from a sideline.

"Blade!" she shouted.

* * *

><p>Blade Drake and Lana Vesper heard the voice of their boss Paige Dyson and found her zipping along with Guardian Bob.<p>

"Boss," Lana shouted.

They looked and suddenly watched as they were soon surrounded by all the local gangs that they were trying to get away from. Then they watched as the viral Shadow Riders swooped in behind them.

"At last," Megabyte's voice came where Damien Triad's voice was supposed to be. "I have all my little surfers all in a gathering. I have to thank you for all coming for our little party."

The gangs gathered up everyone into a tight group.

"Sorry about this boss," Blade said to Paige. "Lana, I…"

"I know," Lana replied. "You never have to say it."

Paige grumbled under her breath, her lip snarling slightly.

"I know that this must irk you Guardian Dyson," Megabyte taunted her. "You spent your entire existence online in an endless pursuit to erase me. Now I will have the pleasure of erasing you."

"We'll see," she replied.

Megabyte fired at her with his tentacles, but just before they struck her, Paige Dyson tapped the front of her board and dematerialized into the board. The board flew up and away from harm.

The virus unleashed several viral attacks to catch the board as it zipped and zoomed to avoid the attacks.

The surfer-guardian hybrid reappeared on her board, but was taken out when a blast from one of the rival gangs. She flew down to the ground and attempted to land nearer the ground, but she stumbled off toward the surface.

Paige flipped down into a somersault, losing her cloak in the process, and saw that Bob was about to blast Megabyte with one of Glitch's weapons. She had but a few microseconds to get out of the way.

Bob fired at Megabyte with his particle beam.

As Bob was firing at the virus, he ended up falling to one knee, but continued to push with his arm outstretched.

Megabyte's power faded to where he was no longer able to wear the Damien Triad persona any longer. Glitch's attack beam had weakened him enough, but Bob was also drained to where he couldn't get back on his feet either.

The virus stood and stared at Bob who was defenseless. The guardian tried pushing with his hands to get himself standing, but his legs collapsed beneath him.

"At last," Megabyte said, hovering over him; a lion hungry for his prey. "After all these cycles, the end has finally come for you guardian."

Bob had nothing to say, but tried crawling away from him.

Megabyte slammed his foot down hard on Bob's shin and kept him at bay.

"Glitch, power ram," he called and got one more shot off and was able to crawl out of the way again.

"You are merely delaying the inevitable guardian," the virus leered; ready to savor in his kill. "Say hello to the Shadow Riders for me." He fired with all the viral power that he had in his hands.

Bob cowered, ready to await his deletion…

…that never happened.

Bob reopened his eyes and saw that Paige was now standing in front of him. Her body was lunged in front of his, but her spine had taken the entire weight of the blow from Megabyte.

"Surfer!" Megabyte snarled.

"No," Paige said, turning to face him. "Absolution. Dixon," she called into her keytool, "Hex virus."

"What!" Megabyte shouted.

Dixon launched the glowing red and black ball that was the virus Hexadecimal after she had been transformed into the virus that cleansed the Net from Daemon.

Hex's distinct laughter echoed off the tunnel's walls and she struck her twin with an intensity that caused Megabyte to howl and growl for the pain that he was in.

"No!" he cried out, but Hex purged her way through him and cleansed his programming.

"_Now, dear brother, we are one again_," Hexadecimal savored in the fact she was deleting her brother once and for all.

Megabyte imploded within himself, bursting into the thousands bits of code that complied him and he vanished.

Blade, Lana, and Ray couldn't believe what they were seeing.

Bob couldn't believe what he was seeing. Had Paige Dyson, surfer-guardian hybrid, done what no guardian or containment could have done?

She deleted the Trojan horse virus Megabyte all on her own.

"Finally, it's over," Paige whispered, taking a long trapped breath and exhaling. "You've been avenged sis," she spoke to her keytool.

Dixon made her usual noises, but was louder now that it was over.

Megabyte was truly gone…for good.

"I don't mean to be the party pooper," Ray Tracer spoke out, "but I think that we best get out of here before any of the gangs that heard us find us."

"Good idea Ray," Paige said. "We can celebrate after we get to the Tower, regroup, and get back to the Supercomputer to tell Turbo the good news."

"When we get back, I have only one question to ask," Blade asked. "Where do I get those types of powers like you boss?"

Paige Dyson smiled with a small chuckle. "You have to evolve," she told him. "You have to become a surfer hybrid like me."

He was reluctant, but she would try and convince him on the way.

Ray Tracer followed tightly behind Blade and Lana on one surfboard while Paige Dyson led the way out of the Sapron System into the Net to reunite with the rest of the Surfers.

Bob hopped on with Paige, only because she insisted it would allow them to go faster than the zipboard would allow him to go. He kept his grip on her belt near her waist to hang on while they jetted across the Net to the Web to get to the Knight Tower and to the rest of the squad.

Then the seven of them would be on their way to the Super computer.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Mainframe<strong>_

Commander Jeldwyn Green arrived at the Principle Office of Mainframe in order to use one of the command channels in the War Room to communicate with the Guardian High Council.

He stood, poised and straight as he was prepared to give his final report and order the complete file transfer of Paige Dyson, his stepdaughter, right out of Mainframe to one of her systems.

Granted it was all in retaliation for all the cycles of grief that she had caused him, but he could tell that Dot Matrix would be happy to see Paige gone as well.

"Ah, Commander Green," the evaluation committee met on the screen with him. "Are you ready to complete and submit your evaluation report on Agent X-01 – Paige Dyson?"

"I am sirs," Green told them. "It is under my supervision and evaluation that I am requesting a file transfer of Dyson, Paige to one of her assigned systems for the following reasons…"

A VidWindow opened up.

"Not so fast there Green," a voice snapped at him.

It was Paige who appeared on that other screen and was conferenced into the meeting that would assign and change her very life.

"Why Guardian Dyson," the commander of the evaluation council greeted her into the call. "We were just talking about you and Commander Green was about to announce a file transfer approval request to us and he was just about to get some evidence to support his claim."

"Before you do that," Paige said, "you may want to know that the reason I stayed in Mainframe was deal with the virus known as Megabyte; a Trojan horse power level virus who at the time was unable to be destroyed or reprogrammed."

"At the time?" another of the evaluators asked. "Do you have a status report saying different?"

"Other than I have data tapes from Dixon, my sister and keytool that shows Megabyte has been erased from all corners of the Net your honors," she told them. "I am willing to send this report to you personally."

"We would like to see it," the high leader said. "You know what this means, do you not Guardian Dyson?"

"It means that I am to relocate as soon as possible," she answered the question. "No need for scarring up my record Green. I'm going to go willingly, but I must ask for a second to at least relocate and secure another home page address before my work resumes."

The council mumbled and Jeldwyn was uneasy as they were talking.

"Your request is granted Guardian Dyson," the leader told her. "You are allowed a two second timeframe to secure a new home page address and then you may resume your duties as Guardian X-01. This meeting is adjourned." The window to the council shut.

"That sucks for you, doesn't it Jeldwyn," Paige blasted at him. "All those lies that you cooked up to try and make me look bad. Now, you have stuff them with energy meat and eat it yourself. I have just two little words I would like to say to you: I win." And she too shut her VidWindow.

Jeldwyn wrapped his hands tightly around the report; the papers crinkling tightly that once again, his stepdaughter had outsmarted him again. She was going to be moving on at least and Dot would be free to pursue her fiancée again, but it still wasn't the way they had initially planned to do it.

It was only a small victory, but in the end, he still appeared to be the loser.

* * *

><p><em>Oh no! Paige is going to leave Mainframe! What does that mean for her and Bob? You are going to have to read and find out!<em>


	5. Chapter 5

_****Here is the end of Union of Sorts. I hope that you enjoyed it. Please continue to review!_

* * *

><p><em><strong><span>Supercomputer<span> **_

The Knight Surfers stood before Paige and Bob on the landing platform where Maximillion Dyson had sent his personal transport to pick up the team. Stara Crichton was more than eager to go and be recalibrated and was hanging out the transport waiting for the other three to get on board.

Grendar was slowly backing away toward the ship, but Blade and Lana still wanted to talk to Paige before they took off.

"I can't believe that I am thinking about becoming a guardian again," Blade stated as Lana was wrapped around his left arm. "It goes against our creed that we created when we broke out of this place all those years ago."

"But you have to admit Blade," Paige said to them, "the power exchange in return will be worth the reprogramming. Trust me. You won't have to answer to anybody regarding your methods and you only have to report to my uncle once a month-cycle. Why do you think I went for it?"

"Well, let's be honest Paige," Lana said. "You didn't have a say in the matter."

"This is true, but if I didn't like it, I wouldn't still be here, would I?"

Lana reached over to Paige and gave her a hug. "We'll see you around."

"You can count on it," she replied.

Blade shook hands with Bob and Lana did the same. "You take care, boss," he told her and also hugged her.

"You take care of each other," she told him.

The four friends walked inside the shuttle and the pilot lifted the transport off the pad and headed off for her father's system.

Bob and Paige headed for the elevator and proceeded down from the landing platform to head back inside the Guardian Academy.

Paige knew that Bob was glancing, practically scanning her up and down as they rode down in silence.

"You never were a good scanner," she told him. "What's up?"

"Nothing," he replied suddenly as if he wasn't doing anything.

"That's the other thing that you couldn't do."

"What?" he asked.

"You never were a good liar either," she quipped the quick comeback.

"It's just…back on Sapron, in the tunnel when the viral clones were flying and we hid, we…we, uh…"

"Kissed again," she finished his statement.

"Yeah. What was that all about?"

"It was about becoming good hidden files and staying hidden so that the clones didn't find us. That was it. Nothing more."

They arrived to their destination and stepped off.

"OK, then what about when Megabyte was going to blast me and you dove in front of the shot that would have deleted anybody…"

"Anybody _but_ me," she said as they were walking down the hall as other Guardians were going to their places. "Bob, with Dix and I, we can repel a shot of that magnitude and look, we deleted Megabyte at long last." She pushed him so they stopped and were staring eye to eye. "I thought that is what you wanted?"

"Isn't what _we_ wanted because he deleted Dixon?" he countered.

Dixon warbled on her wrist in excitement.

"Stay out of it Dixon," Pixel snapped at her. "Look, we tried it once and didn't work and just because of what happened when I first came back to Mainframe happened, doesn't mean that we're going steady, alright. I work better alone."

Bob grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into a large open room and sealed the doors behind him. "Look, I've had it up to here with the loner attitude and the feelings that you claim that you don't have," he said to her. She was pinned against the wall as he had his hands around both her arms and held her still.

"Ever since you came back into my life, the scars of when I was running with you and your gang have been ripped open fresh again," he told her. "Now I don't care what format you are and how much more powerful you are than I am, but we have to face fact files here Paige."

"You have about two nanoseconds to let me go Bob before I blast you across the room," Paige threatened.

"I don't want to be with Dot anymore," he blurted out as she was threatening him. "I want to be with you."

Paige was floored as her eyes grew large and stared at Bob. Granted he was an old flame before and they had a torrid history after they were caught by the Guardians. She still couldn't resist him.

They both stared at each other intently as their warm breaths covered each other's faces.

"Dix, shocker," she called.

The keytool Dixon gave a minor shocker that shocked Bob into letting go of her. He shook off the blast from his hands as she stared at him.

"What was that for?" Bob said. "I was in the middle of confessing my feeling for you and you gave me an electric shock blast."

"Are you out of your mind?" Paige told him. "You're still living in Mainframe as am I and even considering a relationship would send your ex over the edge. Even if we managed to keep that secret, who's to say she won't find out and try and slag the both of us?"

"We'll find out a way," he said.

Paige slowly sauntered over to him. "Well, this is an interesting moment," she said to him.

"What is?" he asked, still trying to recover from the shock blast.

"My little Bobbie boy finally grew a backbone," she said as she rested her arms around his shoulders and the back of his neck while she kissed him.

Bob responded back from her kiss and wrapped his arms around her small frame. Eventually he took her off her feet and entangled his hands in her hair and uniform.

As they were, a binome walked up and coughed at them.

They released their lips from each other, but looked down at the zero unit before them.

Surprisingly, it was a priestly binome before them. "Are you here for the wedding or are you wanting to get married?" he asked in a rich accent.

Bob and Paige looked around and noticed that they were in one of the chapels around the Guardian Complex. It was quiet except for the two of them and the binome. They looked at each other in their embraces for a second.

"Come on Paige," he said to her.

"No way Bob," she replied. "This is going too fast."

"Oh come on Paige, develop some backbone."

"Oh, you're so in for it now," she said and they followed the binome down the aisle toward the altar.

* * *

><p><em>Betcha never saw that coming. Thank you for reading!<em>


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